in. Good-bye.”
The Champion puts the shoe on the prospect’s foot by saying, “Mr. Rinehart, would you for a moment pretend that you’re the president of Dimm Copiers, and you’ve just found out about the challenge we had with the reproduction speed of our copiers. What would you do?”
Mr. Rinehart will say something like, “I’d get my engineering department cracking on it, and make them solve the problem in a hurry.” By putting him in the shoes of your company’s president, you’ve asked him a question with an obvious answer that strokes his ego, haven’t you?
Then you warmly smile and say, “That’s exactly what Dimm Copiers did.” What can Mr. Rinehart do now but listen to the rest of your presentation?
A common experience in sales, especially when starting a new job, is to take over an established territory. Let’s suppose you’re doing that.
It doesn’t take you long to find out that the person you replaced wasn’t promoted for doing a great job. In fact, the opposite happened—your predecessor tore the territory down. Now you’re picking up the pieces.
As you get around your new area to meet clients, you start running across a lot of unhappy people. Most of them are now buying your product or service from the competition. When you go in to introduce yourself and say that you’re going to be servicing their company from now on, they tell you something like this:
“Listen, we aren’t going to do business with your company anymore. That last guy was a real loser. Made all kinds of promises he couldn’t deliver on, and then he’d never call us back. I’ve had it. Any company that would put a man like him on the road for them is off our list.”
Smile and say, “Sir, please forgive me for what happened in the past before I joined the company.”
“Nothing personal, but we’ve had enough.”
“I understand what you’re saying. But may I ask you to pretend something with me for just a moment? If you were the president of our company and it came to your attention that one of your salespeople was giving your clients the kind of service he gave you, what would you do?”
“I’d fire him.”
Then you smile again and say, “That’s what we did—and here I am to provide you with the level of service you should expect from our company.”
But what if the last representative is now your manager, your boss, or is still with the company in some other capacity?
You smile and say, “… If you were the president of our company, and it came to your attention that one of your salespeople was terrible at follow-up even on very important business, but you also knew that this person had some great talents in areas where you badly needed help, how would you handle it?”
You’re practically spelling out the answer for him, aren’t you?
So he’s going to give you a response along these lines: “Well, if he really had talents I needed, I suppose I’d try to put those talents to work where we could keep an eye on him.”
Whatever your prospects say about the person in question, you reply, “That’s probably what we did.” Don’t get into a long explanation. Stop the discussion of the old disasters right there and go with your presentation about the new and exciting things your company now has to offer.
2. Change their base. Ask a question that highlights major benefits while it dwarfs minor objections.
Here’s an example from real estate sales: You’ve shown the entire home, and they like it. But as you’re walking with them down the hall after seeing the three bedrooms in the house, the husband suddenly starts fighting you.
“That last bedroom is too small,” he says.
As you feed it back, intensify it to see whether it’s more like a condition than an objection. “The third bedroom is too small? How did you plan to use it?”
“It would probably be the guest room. But it’s sure small.”
If the wife doesn’t jump in and overcome the objection for you, change his base. “Tell me, Mr. Bjornstad—and this is an important question, sir, because your answer can eliminate this house from consideration—what will you base your decision on, the warmth and livability of the entire home, or a few inches in the guest room?”
Of course, he’s going to pick the warmth and livability of the entire home. If he doesn’t, you’d better forget that house and find one they will own.
You’re with a prospect who is considering your medical insurance. She says, “Mr. Hopkins, one of my major concerns is that I’d really like to have the insurance company pay the doctor and hospital direct and save me all that hassle.”
Your company doesn’t handle things that way. So you ask in a cordial way, “Mrs. Wimmer, what will you base your decisions on—the method of payment or the quality of coverage for you and your family?”
She’ll say, “The quality of coverage.”
Then you eliminate the objection by saying, “Let’s discuss the quality of the coverage for your family first, shall we?”
3. Question down. People walk into your retail store and settle by one of your entertainment systems. When they ask questions, you give your demonstration and learn two things. They are Mr. and Mrs. Tellgren, and they want that system. You go through a few closes with no success, and then Mr. Tellgren says, “Thanks for your time. We’ll think about it and let you know.”
What does “I’ll let you know” really mean in cases like this?
It means, “Now that I’ve found what I want, I’m going to shop around and see if I can buy it any cheaper.”
Remember the rule. Always lead them toward answering their own objections.
“We’ll look around and get back to you.”
“Fine. That’s a wise decision. Mr. Tellgren, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions before you go. Were you impressed with the quality of the sound on this model?”
“Oh yes.”
“Is the cabinet the size you’re looking for?”
“Well, yeah, it’s about right.”
“And I think you mentioned that you wanted adequate controls, but not something too elaborate. Does that model fit your needs on this?”
I gently list all the things they were pleased with. As I do this, I work in—very briefly—all the positive things I can: “We service everything we sell, we have free delivery and installation, we offer liberal credit terms,” whatever. In a few cases, you’ll be able to close them by striking a responsive chord with some of the services that you can offer. If not, you’ll be able to get down to the final objection which, nine times out of ten, is money. When you get them to agree that the reason they won’t buy right now is money, you’ve isolated your challenge. The techniques for coping with this problem are given in chapter 4 of book 4, Your Sales Presentation and chapter 2 of book 5, 16 Power Closes.
3.
